Edmund and Eaton claim wins at Wimbledon Qualifying

There were victories for Kyle Edmund and Chris Eaton on the opening day of Wimbledon qualifying at the Bank of England Sports Ground in Roehampton.

Edmund, the 17 year-old making his debut at Wimbledon qualifying, produced the surprise of the day by defeating Daniel Gimeno-Traver, a player ranked 1168 places higher in the rankings.

The British junior broke his opponent in the final game of the match to win 6-3, 6-7 (4), 6-4 and book a place in the second round. “It was definitely my biggest win so far” commented Edmund afterwards.

Meanwhile there was also success for Chris Eaton who also overcame a higher ranked opponent to move into the second round.

The Briton, who reached the second round of the Wimbledon main draw men’s singles in 2008, produced a confident service display in defeating Australian Ben Mitchell 7-6(4), 4-6, 6-3.

“I’m getting through the tight ones which is important,” Eaton said after the match.

There were first round defeats for Ed Corrie, George Morgan, Richard Bloomfield and Andrew Fitzpatrick.

Corrie was beaten 6-4, 6-3 by France’s Stephane Robert whilst Morgan, who claimed the 2011 Wimbledon boys' doubles title, lost 6-0, 6-4 to the Spaniard Inigo Cervantes.

Fitzpatrick was defeated 6-3, 6-4 by 17th seed Marco Chiudinelli and Bloomfield lost 6-4, 6-4 to Japan’s Hiroki Moriya.

David Rice fought back from a set down only to suffer a 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 defeat to China’s Ze Zhang whilst later in the day Liam Broady went down in three sets to Thomas Fabbiano.

Broady raced into a 5-2 lead early on but was eventually pegged back by his more experienced Italian opponent who prevailed 7-6(5), 6-4.

Luke Bambridge completed the British players in action on day one, losing in straight sets to Roberto Bautista-Agut. 

Other notable players to be defeated on day one included former top 10 player Arnaud Clement and Portugal's Frederico Gil, a player with four previous Wimbledon main draw appearances to his name.